Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Pennsylvania Dutch Country

This morning we drove to Ephrata, PA. Stopped at Wal-Mart to stock up on the basics then continued to the Shady Maple complex. There is a Good's Dept. Store, the Shady Maple Farm Store(A big grocery store) and the absolutely huge Shady Maple smorgasbord restaurant. I bought a new pair of jeans at Good's and finally found a single serving drip coffee maker. Mom & I went into the grocery store. I got some scrapple, sausage, Lebanon bologna, & real eggs and some healthy oat bran. One healthy item out of five!! Carol bought some yummy oatmeal cookies & apple fritters.In the evening we had dinner at the restaurant. Good thing we only get up here every few years. We would both be tubs.Spent the night in the Shady Maple parking lot.On Thursday, we drove to a local park so Gopher could have a good walk. Since dogs only had to be under control, rather then leashed, I let her run around for a while. There was a picnic going on. It looks like an Amish and/or Mennonite school event. The dress was interesting. All the boys wore black pants with suspenders. The girls wore long dresses and white caps. Most of the dresses were of muted colors but a few were very bright & gay. Some of the kids arrived by carriage; some by car. Research shows there is a wide variety of religious practice, use of mechanical devices, driving of cars, etc. Later we went to the Green Dragon Market & Auction where we spent the night. There were a dozen or more, RV's there. On Friday, market day, Carol & I enjoyed just poking around the flea market and semi-permanent booths. Had the best ever hot pretzels, bought sausage & pies for the picnic we're going to have at Peter's house, Carol had an apple fritter and bought a distlefink called Songbirds. "Songbirds are stylized distlefinks singing about the sweetness of life". Late in the day, a helicopter landed nearby. Apparently some of the children had never seen one. Look at the picture of three girls looking at their first closeup of a helicopter.